Burner



E. J. HORTON BURNER Filed Aug. 11, 1932 A m/Z511 Patented Aug. 28, 1934BURNER Ernest J. Horton, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to Ruud ManufacturingCompany, a corporation of New Jersey Application August 11, 1932, SerialNo. 628,282

1 Claim.

This invention relates to burners of the type adapted to burn gaseousfuels, and more particularly to a multiple burner adapted for eithermanual or automatic control.

An object of this invention is the provision of a multiple burner,formed as a unitary structure, in which any one or all of the burnersmay be used according to particular requirements for heat.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a multiple burner,constructed as a single unit, and so arranged that combustion at oneburner shall not afiect nor impair combustion at any other burner of theunit.

a A further object of the invention is the provision of a multipleburner, of unitary construction, having a single pilot burner adapted toserve all of the burners, and an automatic cut-ofi mechanism adapted toshut 011" the supply of fuel to all of the burners, including thepilot'burner, in case the flame at the pilot burner is extinguished.

In the majority of cases, hot water heaters are subject to three ratesof demand for hot water, minimum, normal and maximum. These demand ratesoccur largely on separate or different" days.

Heretoforait has been the practice to useone burner for satisfying eachof these demands. The capacity of such burners, therefore, had to besuch as to take care of the maximum demand for hot water, and in orderto satisfy the normal and minimum requirements the gas or fuel wasthrottled at theburner to reduce the fuel consumption and the heatdeveloped by the burner. Since burners of thistype are designed to burnthe fuel efficiently when turned on full, they are not efficient whenoperating at less than capacity.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a unitarymultiple burner which in operation is the equivalent of a plurality ofseparate burners, any one of which may be operated alone, or alloperated together. Thus, for example, if the'unit includes two burners,each of difierent capacity, three heat combinations. are available formeeting the three most common rates ofdemand for hot water. on full,will develop sufficient heat to satisfy the minimum demand, the largerwill satisfy normal demand, and when both burners are on full, themaximum hot water demand may bermet. Thus all requirements for hot watermay be satisfied with a single unit, and each burner of the unit may beoperated, whether singly or collectively at its maximum capacity andeificiency; consequently material economies in fuel may be realized.

Other objects of the invention will, in part, be

The smaller of the burners, when shown. I The unit comprises a hollowmember or body 2, preferably of ring shape, having partitions 3 and 4therein which divide the interior of the body into a plurality ofisolated compartments or chambers 5 and 6. The top face of the body isprovided with nipples 7 having passages 8 therein through which fuel maydischarge from the chambers and be ignited; Chambers 5 and 6 with theirnipples '7, therefore constitute separate burners, designated, forconvenience, A and B, respectively.

In order that a combustible mixture of fuel and air may be supplied toeither or both of burners A and B, conduits 9 and 10 are provided whichcommunicate separately with the interior thereof. The outer ends ofthese conduits terminate' in Venturi throats 11 and mixing chambers 12into which fuel and air enter, in the usual manner, to form acombustible mixture. The air flow into the mixing chambersmay beadjusted by means of valves 13 of usual construction.

Theburner body 2 and the conduits 9 and 10 may, as shown, be cast asasingle piece or unit and when so constructed will be practically ascheap to manufacture as a single burner of the same capacity 7 Inpractice, it is proposed to make the burners A and B of diiferentcapacities, so that the necessary amount of heat required underparticular conditions may be had with maximum efiiciency. Thus, if onlyarelatively small amount of heat is required for heating water, forexample, the

smallest burner of the unit may be used separate-,

1y, .orif more heat isrequired, the larger burner of the unit may beused separately; or if the full capacity of the burner unit is required,both or all of the individual burners may be operated. Thus, forexample, if the total capacity of the burner is'taken as a unity, thenburner B'may be designed for a capacity of one third, and burner A for acapacity of two-thirds, hence burner A chamber A would have twicethecapacity of burner B; Therefore, with a burner unit of this design, aunit is provided which, in effect, is the equivalent of three separateburners, all combined as a single unit.

With a burner of this design, each burner of the unit may be operated atfull capacity which is the most efficient manner of operating burners ofthis type. because combustion is more complete.

Since the individual burners of this unit are not embraced or surroundedby another burner, the combustion at one burner will not impair noraffect the combustion at any other burner when all of the burners are inoperation.

In order that the burner unit shown may be utilized with hot waterheaters, of the storage type, having thermostatic valve mechanism, (notshown) for turning on and shutting off the fuel in accordance with thetemperature of the water, a pilot burner 14 is provided. The pilotburner may be mounted on a lug 15 so located that the flame of the pilotwillignite the fuel discharging from the nipples of any or all of theindividual burners of the unit.

The fuel for the pilot burner would he on at all times, and so, for thisreason, the pilot burner should be connected to the fuel line at a pointahead of theautomatic valveinechanism referred to above but not shownherein.

It often happens that the source of-supply of fuel fails,v in which casethe pilot flame would go out, or the pilot flame may beaccidentallyextinguished from other causes. Therefore, unless the supplyof fuel be positively shut off from both the pilot burner and the otherburners of the unit, fuel would escape end under certain conditionsmight result in explosions or fire. To guard against such contingencies,an auxiliary multiple valve 16 is provided which is under the control ofa temperature responsive means 17 disposed adjacent the pilot burner.

This multiple valve is shown in my copending application Serial No.593,469, filed February 17, 1932, and assigned to Ruud ManufacturingCompany, a corporation of the State of New Jersey. Said application hasresulted in Patent No. 1,885, 724, issuedNovember l, 1932. In general,the multiple valve includes a valve for controlling the:

flow of fuel to each of the mixing chambers 12 from the main supplyline, not shown, the fuel entering the valve through an inlet l8 anddischarging through outlet ports 19 and Valve 16 also includes a valvewhich controls the flow of fuel to the pilot burner, the'fuel enteringfrom the supply line through an inlet port.21 and discharging through anoutlet port 22- connected to apipe 23 leading to the pilot. burner.

In operation, the pilot valve is opened by means of a latch 24, so thatfuel may flow to the pilotv burner, Where it is ignited. The pilot flameheats the. thermal responsive; means 1'7, here shown as a curvedbimetallic-strip. One end of the strip. is rigidly secured to-a block 25and. the other end bears against the end of a stem 26. dis.- posed in apipe 27. The pipe is threaded into the body of valve 16 at one end andforms a guidev for the stem as well as a support for blockxzn- As thestrip deflects upon being heated, stem 26 is shifted in the direction ofarrow 28, thereby opening the valve which controls the flow of fuel toburners A and B. The pilot flame ignites the fuel delivered to theseburners. As the strip continues to deflect, the pilot valve is openedfurther until latch 24 is released, thereby placing both valves underthe control of the bimetallic member. Thus, if the pilot flame goes outfor any reason, the bimetallic strip returns to its cold position,causing both valves to close, and shutting off the fuel supply to all ofthe burners, including the pilot burner. In order to relight the burner,it is necessary to open the pilot valve as above described.

In order that the burners of burner unit 1 may be used separately orcollectively, manually operated shut-oil" valves 29 and 30 areinterposed between outlets 19 and 20 of cut-off valve 16 and therespective mixing chambers 12. Thus, by openingone or the other of theseshut-off valves or openingboth of them, three degrees of heat may beobtained from the burner unit. Whether one or all of the burners of theunit are employed, the pilot burner and the automatic cut-off valve,serves them all.

As shown in the drawing, the manually operated valves are secured tolugs 31 on. the mixing chamber conduits and to the body of the cut-offvalve, therebyproviding a. rigid and substantial unitary construction.

Itwill be apparent that the automatic cut-off valve may be dispensedwithif desired, and in such case, the manually operated valves would beconnected to the, source of supply. In such case, the burners whetherused singly or collec- Lively would be placed in operation by merelyopening one or the other or both of the manually operated valves 29 and30 and then igniting the gas or fuel in the customary manner.

While but one. form of the invention has been shown and describedherein, it will be apparent to. those skilled in this art that variousmodifica tions and changes may be made without departing from either thespirit or the. scope of the invention. It is desired, therefore, thatonly such limitations shall be placed on.v the invention as are imposedby the prior art and the appended clail'IL. a

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A burner unit comprising a hollow burner body of substantially ringshape having." partitions therein: dividing said body into aplurality ofindependentv burners of different. capacities and located equidistantfrom the center of the body, individual conduits communicating with saidburners, said conduits having mixing chambers into which fuel and airmay be introduced to sup ply each burner with a combustible mixture, andmeans for controlling the supply of fuel to each. burner so that any oneof said burners: may be operated. singly or all of the burners may beoperated at the sametime'.

ERNEST J2, HORTON.

